Topic awaiting preservation: PMS colors (Page 1 of 1)

PMS colors, the Pantone matching system, is a universal system that printers use so that your work comes out the same color each time, who've is printing your work right?

now my question is, whats the difference between CMYK?
i have a logo that is in CMYK color, that i need to change to PMS? how is this done in photoshop?

and what the hell is LAB color?

i've had a quick google but i cant seem to find the answers, hope some one can help me out

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMYK_color_model
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lab_color_space
http://www.internetvideomag.com/articles2002/color-confusion.htm
http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2005/02/11/cmyk_for_tho/

last covers PMS use with Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop

That depends on how many individual PMS color Inks you need it to be. Photoshop is not ideal for using PMS Colors unless you you are using doutone. If you are going to have to have at least 4 colros you might as well leave it CMYK. CMYK is 4 specific ink colors Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. individually they are no different than any one PMS color. The difference is that when printed together on a 4 color press they configuration of dots layed down for each color allow for you to print virtually any color.

most likely the reason you need to use PMS is to not have to pay for 4 color printing to be able to print as 1-2-or-3 color cheaper. Without seeing the art it is hard to recomend the best option. In Quark or InDesign you can tint a grayscale version of your logo to any one color pretty easily. you could make it doutone with 2 Pantone colors or one and black if you save as phototshop eps file. I don't have a 3 color recomendation without seeing art. Generally I recomend making logos thaqt are going to be printed in Illustrator then you can use photoshop later for full color or web versions.

Ah, the (P)ANTONE (M)ATCHING (S)YSTEM.

Carry on. My bad.

Jason